


Maybe This One's Different.

by hurricxneamelia



Series: Five of Six: Snippets of K Howard [1]
Category: Six - Marlow/Moss
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, F/M, Modern Retelling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-07
Updated: 2019-05-07
Packaged: 2020-02-27 14:48:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18741232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hurricxneamelia/pseuds/hurricxneamelia
Summary: Anna frowned, all of Katherine’s responses were convoluted with a frustrating ambiguity, “Did you say you wanted to sleep with them? Did you actually want to?” She asked hoping to get a clearer answer from the woman in her arms.“I didn’t say no.”“But you didn’t say yes.”





	Maybe This One's Different.

**Author's Note:**

> Ok this is obviously completely modern so here's some guidelines for clarity
> 
> \- Henry only married K Howard 
> 
> \- Parr and Howard are friends from uni
> 
> -Boleyn, Cleves, Aragon, and Seymour are friends from uni 
> 
> \- TW for rape mentions. The idea for this came from 'All You Wanna Do' and the fact that Aimie Atkinson and Genesis Lynea are dating kinda inspired my love of this ship. Stay safe loves

All of it seemed so normal when it happened. It was natural for people to have crushes and have sex right? At first, it had hurt, but he assured her it was normal. In fact, all of them had. They all told her it was normal to have bite marks and bruises after sex, that they looked sexy on her. They also reminded her that the secret of the so called relationship made everything better, so she never said anything to her parents and her ‘partners’ knew how to keep it discreet. 

In fact, Katherine married her boyfriend in college right after they graduated. He was rich and he wanted her. He wanted her body and he made her feel desirable. It was the same rush she’d experienced since she had been thirteen years old in her voice teacher’s home. 

Marriage wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. It turned out Henry’s personality or lack thereof seemed to get worse as time passed. She realized one night, lying in bed beside his snoring figure she’d been naive to think he’d be any different than anyone before. His rich, entitled friends were sleazy and liked to cop a feel when they could. She hated it, but it was supposed to be a compliment right? 

There was one that wasn’t like that though, Thomas. He’d been an art history major and he taught high school now. She wasn’t sure why he got on with Henry exactly, Thomas showed very little interest in sports or politics: two things Henry and the rest of his friends could spend hours screaming or arguing about. Often times Thomas, if he got sick of it all would slip into the kitchen or foyer where Katherine chose to reside when his friends were over. Conversations with him never got old, they’d speak about music, Thomas’ job, Katherine’s considering going back to school, or whatever came up. The man was just the person the young woman needed in her life: a friend. 

Somehow, Katherine had managed to isolate herself from most of her friends, other than another woman named Katherine who was currently in Africa helping to build schools and advocate for girls going to school. She’d been a journalism major with a music minor so Katherine had been in some classes with her. (She had been a music major). Distancing herself from other friends hadn’t been intentional, but it slowly happened after her (now failed) marriage.

The woman’s hopes fell the night Thomas insisted they drink while Henry and his friends debated about hockey. She was never opposed to a drink, but his hand started inching up her thigh after a few glasses of wine. The brunette stiffened, and if he noticed he didn’t say.

He only grinned up at her, “I’m taking you to bed.” She didn’t say anything, but just let Thomas pull her off the bar stool and through the house. She was married, she shouldn’t do this. She wasn’t happy though, in her marriage. Still, she didn’t want to have sex with Thomas. He was her friend, and he wasn’t supposed to be anything else. 

By the time she came to that conclusion, he’d already found his way to a guest room and pulled them in.  
Katherine’s thoughts shut off in those next few moments as the familiar motions and feeling of a man’s hands caressing and squeezing her body came to be again. She let autopilot take over and before she knew it she was on her back on the bed, naked, with Thomas on top of her. Granted, he wasn’t as rough as any of the past people who’d fucked her, but that didn’t make her like it. His hands found every crevice of her body hungrily and his lips inches down her body as he pounded her. 

He was supposed to be her friend, and nothing else. Why did men always have an ulterior motive with her? When she needed someone’s kindness, he needed sex. 

Before Thomas could finish, the sound of the door slamming open alarmed both parties. Immediately Henry’s gruff shouting filled the air, “Get out! Leave now!” He screamed, half drunk at Thomas who at this point had climbed off of Katherine. The woman scrambled to cover herself with something before Henry’s prying eyes found their way to her body. He’d seen it before, but this time there were extenuating circumstances. Her face burned with shame and his anger was palpable. The woman met Henry’s eyes before he stormed out slamming the door behind him. 

Just like that, their marriage was over and Katherine moved out. Henry would hear nothing of reconciliation. She only saw Henry again to sign divorce papers. In truth, she was glad to be out of the marriage, but she wished it hadn’t ended in that way. 

\---- 

Months later, Katherine met Anna. Never had she imagined herself actually being with a woman, even if she thought about it, but the minute she spotted the short dark skinned woman with smokey brown eyes across the bar, she felt a nervous flutter in her stomach she hadn’t felt in a while.  
After a couple more drinks, she finally got the courage to send a drink to the other woman. She was really out on a limb here. What if the woman wasn’t into her, or felt weirded out by it?

Katherine stole several glances at the woman and her friend as the bartender delivered it. The brunette with her had space buns; they didn’t look like a couple, at least she didn’t think they did. It was difficult to gauge for sure. Katherine returned her attention to her own drink and the suddenly very interesting vodka bottle that bartender had left out. 

“Hey, you’re the one who sent me the drink?” Asked a voice with a German accent.

Katherine felt her face turn scarlett as she looked at the woman standing beside her now, “Yeah, that was me,” she smiled. Damn it, she was never embarrassed around people she flirted with, but then again, she was flirting with a ridiculously hot German, and that had never happened before.

The German tilted her head, “You’re cute. I was just going to give you my number, that is if you want it.” 

Katherine nodded, “Yeah, that’d be great, thanks.” ‘Lame,’ she reprimanded herself internally. She unlocked her phone and opened the contacts app so she the woman could type her number into it. 

“Hope I’ll hear from you soon,” she said a flirtatious smile lighting up her face as she handed the phone back.  
“Plan on it,” Katherine smiled back taking her phone. 

“Good.” 

Katherine looked back at her phone, Anna Cleves, what a pretty name. God, she was so off of her game it was embarrassing. She hadn’t bothered picking up anybody since Henry, and if her blush and lame quip back was any indication, she was rusty. 

Anna made her way back to her original seat at the bar beside Anne Boleyn, her wingwoman and close friend.  
“Did you do it?” Anne asked eagerly as the other sat down beside her. 

“Yeah, I did. She said she’ll call me soon. I hope she does, she’s cute.” 

“Aw, you finally found someone you’re interested in,” Anne teased lightly elbowing Anna. “It took you long enough to get over Martin.” 

“Hey, at least I’m not interested in her as a rebound, like someone I know would be,” Anna raised an eyebrow. 

“Guilty as charged, not all of us can be single for that long,” Boleyn shrugged still smiling. 

“Ah, but my friend, you could be. You just chose not to be.” 

“Whatever, being single is boring." 

Cleves nodded, “I can agree with you there.” 

“Well, maybe now you won’t be single anymore.” 

Just as Katherine promised, she called Anna the next day. The pair agreed to go out for drinks as a first date. On that date, the two women just seemed to click inexplicably. A first date led to a second, and then a third, and a fourth, and so on. '

Eventually, Anna introduced Katherine to her friends: Katherine Aragon, Anne Boleyn, and Jane Seymour. The three all welcomed Katherine into their circle so to speak. Anne and Anna had met during their dance programs at university and Jane and Katherine had joined the circle when they’d met at a party. The group began to refer to Katherine as ‘K Howard’ or ‘Kat’ because other Katherine hated nicknames and having two heads turn when someone said ‘Katherine,’ wasn’t always conducive to ease. When Katherine Parr, her friend, arrived back from studying abroad, she’d have to introduce her to everyone else. 

The more time Katherine spent with Anna the more she started to allow herself to believe that she was different. She never rushed Katherine into anything or acted apathetic toward what she wanted or thought. It was almost too ideal, and Katherine remembered the last time she thought a relationship had been ideal. That relationship ultimately led to her divorce. 

Anna and the rest of the girls continued to prove they genuinely cared about her by inviting her to hang out with them, and surprisingly, it wasn’t just Anna who invited her places. They all did. Maybe this time Anna truly was different from the other people in her life. 

Several months into their relationship, they still hadn’t made it past making out and losing outer layers of clothing. The change was refreshing. The minute clothes started to come off, Katherine had prepared herself that it would go all the way, not that she minded it with Anna. She wanted to sleep with her. On the other hand, what if she had sex with Anna then that’s all she wanted? 

This idea came from previous experience of course, Henry, Thomas, Francias, her ex-husband. Being desired gave her a rush unlike any other, but Katherine needed a stable relationship. With Thomas she had a taste of it, but ultimately he just wanted her body. Anna didn’t strike her as the type, but she could never be sure. 

The first time made any indication of wanting to further, Katherine said nothing in objection. It surprised her when Anna asked if she was okay with it: 

“Do you want to do this?” 

Katherine’s brow shot up, “I guess so,” no one ever asked her if she wanted to. 

“Babe, I need a yes or no,” Anna said punctuating her statement by landing a gentle kiss on her lips. 

Katherine almost opened her mouth to immediately say yes. She wanted Anna, but the question of what would happen after stopped her from saying yes that time. If indeed things would morph into a situation where sex was more important, then she would wait so she could enjoy Anna and their relationship a bit longer. 

Her partner raised a brow, “If you aren’t ready we can stop, I promise.” 

The brunette nodded, “Yes, can we stop. I’m sorry."

Anna shrugged, “No need to apologize. I can wait until you want to have sex,” she said leaning up to leave a gentle kiss on Katherine’s jawline. 

Silently, Katherine thanked the other woman. Maybe she really was different. Before nobody bothered to ask, and if she’d protested in any way they ignored her. 

 

\----

 

“Her response was ‘I guess so?’” questioned Katherine Aragon before she put another forkful of pasta in her mouth. 

“Yeah, at first. Then when I said that I needed a yes or no, she hesitated on either. Then when I told her it was really okay if we stopped she asked if we could. It was like she wasn’t thinking about what she wanted in the situation,” Anna frowned pensively as she pushed around the remaining bits of food on her plate. She’d asked Aragon out to lunch for advice seeing as Boleyn wasn’t exactly known for keeping long relationships, Jane was married to her highschool sweetheart and hadn’t been on the dating scene in years, and the newly integrated Katherine Parr was too close to her Katherine to ask she thought, so that left Aragon. 

Aragon was silent for a moment, an apparent thought flickering behind her eyes. Anna raised an eyebrow waiting for her friend to say whatever was on her mind. “I mean, people usually think about their enjoyment when they have sex… if she didn’t then well… I really don’t know how to lead into this and I could be reading into this way too deeply but, we all know about Henry, right? Do you think he ever tried to force her to do anything?” 

The thought had only very briefly crossed Anna’s mind, but she’d never given it much consideration. “I don’t know. I’ve never talked to her about details of her relationship with Henry,” she frowned again. 

“Maybe you should. If that’s not the answer then I’m not sure what to tell you. She could have just been unsure. We could be making mountains out of molehills, like I said. It could be something or nothing.” 

Anna nodded, “Thanks Katherine.” 

“Sure. Now, let’s talk going out this Friday.” 

"Yeah, it's definitely been too long since we've been out to a club."

 

\----

 

By the first time Katherine and Anna went all the way, Anna still hadn’t brought up anything about Henry. As she lay in the bed holding Katherine in her arms the thought crossed her mind again. “Hey baby, can I ask you a personal question?"

Katherine glanced up at her lover inquisitively, “Sure, go ahead.” 

“What exactly happened with Henry? When you wanted to wait to have sex a few months ago, you seemed shocked I even asked you if you wanted to have sex. Of course I don’t know what all went through your head, but you seemed to wait on me to see if it was okay that you said no.” 

Katherine shifted so she was lying on her back and staring at the ceiling instead of looking at Anna, “If you’re asking about whether or not he raped me, or anything like that, he didn’t. He just always wanted to have sex and didn’t really ask me if I wanted to and everyone before that never asked. They always just assumed I did. What happened with him was one of his best friends came onto me and he caught us together,” she mumbled.  
Katherine never considered anything Henry or any of the people she’d slept with after she turned eighteen, wrong. 

At this point in her life, she reconciled that her music teacher and track coach had been in the wrong. They’d committed a crime, but she did say yes and everyone past them hadn’t really done anything she’d flag. She wasn’t gnorant either, she knew someone could revoke consent or be too inebriated to give consent, but it wasn’t like she’d experienced either of these situations. 

Anna frowned, all of Katherine’s responses were convulled with a frustrating ambiguity, “Did you say you wanted to sleep with them? Did you actually want to?” She asked hoping to get a clearer answer from the woman in her arms. 

“I didn’t say no.” 

“But you didn’t say yes.” 

“I said yes plenty of other times to them.” 

“But not every time, and those times you didn’t you didn’t want to.”

Katherine opened her mouth to retort, but no words came out. She wanted to argue, and say she had, but the fact of the matter was too many times had she let men she was with use and abuse her body. Finally, she slowly nodded her head in agreement that no, she hadn’t. 

“Then that’s rape, or at the very least sexual abuse,” Anna said gently her heart breaking for the fact that Katherine felt like she couldn’t or never realized she could say no. She hypothesized that it was a combination of the two. Knowing that Katherine was openly advocate for believing women, she had to wonder if a deeper reasoning spurred on these feelings. 

“It’s just- It’s not like it was when I was thirteen or sixteen. That was rape!” Katherine blurted unable to form another reply. 

Anna’s brows shot up and she shifted in bed so she could see her lover’s face. Katherine’s eyes stared wide at the ceiling and the hand that lay across her stomach clenched into a fist then unclenched promptly, following the same anxious, repetitive pattern. “What happened then?” Anna asked quietly waiting for some cue to move physically as she didn’t want to overwhelm her girlfriend. 

Katherine sucked in a breath, “When I was thirteen my music teacher, he and I had sex, he told me I was so desirable and that he wanted me. At the time I thought it was normal, and liked that someone wanted me. When I was sixteen my track coach came onto me when I stayed late running one day. I never said anything to anyone about it. Looking back, I just never questioned it past Maddox, the music teacher,” she paused to suck in another breath, “that was rape, a crime. I know that, but with Henry and Thomas it was…” she trailed off unsure of how to characterize it. 

“It was rape,” Anna said taking the brunette’s clenching and unclenching fist. Before she could reply, the short haired woman spoke up, “you didn’t give consent, and you want to at least some of those times. If this were any other person in your situation, you wouldn’t tell them they weren’t abused or hurt by this would you?” 

Katherine’s breath caught in her throat. The realizations and facts her mind tried to piece together so long on a subconscious level were finally being brought to light. This realization had crossed her mind before but she never wanted to believe it or consider it. The people who hurt her were supposed to care about her. They were supposed to have been different. She shook her head, “No.” Her voice was weak and quiet, so unlike the Katherine Anna found herself enraptured by every day. 

As the German watched her girlfriend process this apparently knew revelation, it dawned upon her. SInce she had been thirteen, Katherine had normalized this abuse in her mind and because her teenage self said nothing, that translated to the psyche and behavior of adult Katherine despite her firm belief in other survivors. 

“I never wanted to think of it that way. I thought once I was with someone my own age things would be different. I just wanted to believe everything was okay” she whispered.

“I can’t erase the trauma of what anyone else has done, but I can promise that you can always say no to me and tell me what you’re comfortable with in that moment. I promise I’m different.” 

Against her will, Katherine felt tears start to gather in her eyes, “That’s part of the reason I held off so long. I was scared you were with me for the sex.” 

“I’m not, I swear it. I’m with you because you’re witty, beautiful, intelligent, talented and so many other things than just what your body is.”

Katherine squeezed her eyes shut feeling a tear slide down a cheek. No she wouldn’t cry, “Thank you,” she said softly squeezing the one of Anna’s hands that held onto her own. 

“You can cry if you need to, you know.” 

“I shouldn’t need to.” 

“You have a right, realizing and accepting something like what you finally realized takes a toll on somebody.” 

Instead of verbally responding, Katherine rolled over so she was lying with her head buried in Anna’s shoulder. She didn’t want Anna to see her break like this, even if she was right, that forcing her brain to face and focus on its trauma was difficult. 

Anna soon felt tears wet her shoulder. Silently she pulled Katherine as close to her as possible. She was there if she wanted to speak, but she would also be there for her to let it out. 

It was Katherine’s choice and hers only in this situation. She couldn’t tell her how to cope with a realization like this or make it easier. She could recommend therapy, maybe, but otherwise she was just there to support Katherine and prove that she was different.

By the time the brunette’s tears dried, she didn’t move. She just closed her eyes again and waited for sleep to overtake her senses. When it finally did, she was at peace. She felt completely safe in her girlfriend’s arms.

Maybe Anna of Cleves really was different.


End file.
